This article originally appeared in AdAge.

In the evolving brand and marketing landscape, artificial intelligence is not just the hot new fad—it’s a transformative force. Here’s a look at how to apply AI in brand management.

AI is reshaping how we think about the creative process. The next frontier will change how brands are built and managed, and the call to harness new AI tools to power up capabilities is growing. The time to explore what’s possible and pilot new initiatives is now.

From launch to everyday stewardship, there are four primary focus areas where AI will impact brand management and that should be on the radar of every brand leader and AI marketing task force:

Systems that learn your brand

One “single source of truth” via online brand centers and digital asset management platforms has been considered industry best practice. But AI’s implications have us looking forward to the next generation of solutions that do more than just catalog content and standards; they iterate and problem-solve alongside you.

This development, however, raises questions about better aligning brand-building with new AI capabilities. It means evolving traditional brand guidelines with prompt-literate instructions and considering the most effective deployment of automated brand reviews. Major consumer brands are already experimenting with AI for brand imagery generation and bringing forward-thinking AI-led campaigns to market. Think Coca-Cola’s “Create Real Magic” initiative or Nike’s AI-generated models.

This proliferation of new content further highlights the importance of ensuring what’s generated stays true to the brand and its standards.

Meeting creators where they are

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Brand teams want to influence the development of branded assets.

However, they either can’t handle the volume of brand reviews required, don’t have an effective sightline to downstream execution or their organization’s culture generally rejects brand compliance (no one likes a brand cop).

Imagine enabling content checks at scale that are helpful to creators, allow for efficiencies in the creative development process and actually supports brand cohesion in market. AI can get us there—but to work, it needs to be baked in.

 

Lauren Thebault is Group Director, Activation and Brand Management.